The big adventure continues! After ten days in Mobile, sightseeing, doing repairs and stocking up, we put the mast back up and were ready to go. We just needed a good weather report. One great thing about the VHF weather in the USA is that it goes by county. It makes trip planning easier because the forecasts are localized. Bypassing part of the Gulf Intracoastal Waterway (ICW) because Adamant’s mast was too high for the bridges, we headed to Panama City.

The entire state of Florida is celebrating 500 years since the arrival of Ponce de Leon in 1513. Counties all over Florida are marking this year in style… including Pensacola. As part of your Great Loop experience, a stop in Pensacola is highly recommended. Palm Harbor Marina – a frequent stopover for fellow Canadian Loopers – will welcome you with open arms. Palm Harbor is actually home to many Canadian boats kept there year-round. In fact, the Technomarine docks installed there were built in Canada.

The much anticipated envelope arrived in the mail at the beginning of September 2010. It was sent from the AGLCA, the America’s Great Loop Cruisers’ Association. Inside the envelope was a letter from the association congratulating us on completing the Loop, a gold AGLCA flag that we could proudly fly on our signal pennant and a certificate, our “Baccalooperat” This piece of parchment meant as much to us as receiving a degree from a university. We had done it. We had conquered the continuous waterway that took us through the Great Lakes, the inland rivers of the United States and the Gulf and Atlantic Intracoastal Waterways.

It’s really astonishing. In Ontario’s Golden Horseshoe, there are six million or so of us, crowded into bustling neighbourhoods and driving on packed roads. As Canadians we see the United States as a bigger, even more populous big brother next door. BUT. A mere 30 miles across Lake Ontario, you can find pastoral country in the charmingly American harbour and village of Wilson, NY that defies whatever image you have of the United States as the hub of industry and commerce.

This month, Spirit of Portopiccolo, steered by Furio Benussi, with Alberto Bolzan at the mainsail, and tacticians Lorenzo Bressani and Gabriele Benussi, won the 50th edition of Barcolana, the largest regatta in the world held in Trieste, Italy

I don’t know what I expected the first time we made landfall in the Canary Islands but I have to admit that after sailing from the lush mid-Atlantic island of Madeira, I was seriously surprised when the barren desert-like landscapes of the Canary Islands came into view.

The sun rises over green hump-backed hills, backbone of an island called Prvic in the Adriatic Sea, off the coast of Croatia, in the region of Dalmatia. We’ve docked overnight in one of the most beautiful cruising grounds in the world. The hills look across a blushing expanse of water riffled by winds whose names we discovered yesterday morning at the chart briefing that began our Sunsail charter flotilla near a village called Primosten.

Anytime a Canadian is asked to travel south in the beginning of our spring, which this year was far from inviting, is a dream worth living. The thought of a sailing adventure, tropical breezes, the smell of spices and the warmth of the sun was too much – we HAD to go! The first thing we did was to dig out the copy of Ann Vanderhoof’s book, The Spice Necklace, we had acquired several years ago and to re-read the seven chapters of their adventures in Grenada. Not only should this be your required reading, but the book is loaded with scrumptious Caribbean recipes that are a must-try.

The “Road to Tokyo 2020” is often categorized into a 4-year campaign towards the Olympics. At the beginning of the “quad”, Sarah Douglas and her coach planned the four-year lead up to the Olympics. They looked at their end goal and worked backwards from there: deciding year by year what goals they need to reach to achieve the ultimate goal of a medal at the Olympics.

With the 2020 Olympics fast approaching, Sarah has just passed the halfway point in her campaign. “This past summer, I qualified Canada in the Laser Radial class for Tokyo 2020 and placed 6th at the 2018 World Sailing Championships.

In the case of baking a cake, Betty Crocker and Julia Child both start off with the same eggs, sugar and flour, but the results can be very different. Naval architects, designers and engineers in the boat business also have many of the same ingredients, but the trick is to make the cake unique and desirable.

With a huge history of innovative design in boatbuilding, Jeanneau brings the sort of skill and artistry to their boats that can set them apart. Their new Leader 9.0 model is a case in point.

A recent conversation with a fellow contractor got me thinking: With all of the information out there, including: Websites showing repairs, YouTube tutorials, Instagram pages and snapchat streams – let alone books, magazines, service manuals, and years of practical experience – how does a boat owner know which method(s) are ‘right’, who to trust, and who to hire to do the job? In short: How do you find and select a contractor?

Unfortunately, most people are forced to hire a contractor due to a circumstance where something has broken or failed, or the task...

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